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BUSY DAY. Top Army leaders are testifying before SASC. House members are set to attend a classified briefing on the Boston bombing. President Barack Obama is meeting with the leader of Qatar. Lockheed Martin and United Technologies are set to release their first-quarter earnings. And BAE Systems is launching a lobbying blitz in support of its Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

1. ARMY BRASS TO THE HILL: Army Secretary John McHugh and Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno are set to testify before SASC at 9:30 a.m. on the Army’s budget request for fiscal 2014. The two service leaders are sure to face questions about their funding levels for high-profile development programs such as WIN-T and the Ground Combat Vehicle. But they’re also likely to be asked how sequestration is affecting their FY13 spending plan, with the Army looking at major shortfalls in its operations and maintenance accounts as a result of sequestration.

2. HOUSE MEMBERS TO GET CLASSIFIED BRIEFING ON BOSTON BOMBING: The top secret briefing is set to be led by Sean Joyce, the deputy director of the FBI; Rand Beers, the undersecretary of Homeland Security; and Matthew Olsen of the National Counterterrorism Center. The briefing, scheduled for this evening, comes following the Obama administration’s decision yesterday to charge the surviving suspect with using a weapon of mass destruction and to read him his Miranda rights. POLITICO’s Jake Sherman has more on the briefing: http://politi.co/ZgWZw2

3. OBAMA TO MEET WITH LEADER OF QATAR: During the meeting at the White House, Syria is expected to be a major topic of discussion, according to Karen DeYoung of The Washington Post. The president “will doubtless thank the Qataris for hosting a major U.S. air base in the Persian Gulf, and for their help on a wide range of strategic issues from Libya to Afghanistan,” DeYoung writes. “But he is also likely to press Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to ensure that none of the weapons Qatar is sending to Syrian rebels end up with the Jabhat al-Nusra, which the administration has linked to al-Qaeda.” More here: http://wapo.st/11x3oTo

4. LOCKHEED, UTC TO RELEASE FIRST-QUARTER EARNINGS: Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, is set to announce its first-quarter earnings early this morning and will hold a conference call with investors at 11 a.m. UTC, meanwhile, is holding its conference call at 9 a.m. The two contractors, which both have a major stake in the F-35 program, are likely to face questions from investors about the state of the program and their relationships with the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office.

5. BAE TO STORM CAPITOL HILL OVER BRADLEY STANDOFF: BAE Systems is launching a lobbying blitz today to persuade Congress to block the Army’s plan to freeze upgrades to its Bradley Fighting Vehicles, which are produced by BAE largely at its plant in York, Pa. More than 60 Bradley suppliers will be on Capitol Hill today and tomorrow to visit 20 to 40 congressional offices to discuss the issue, said BAE spokeswoman Kristin Gossel. “BAE Systems and hundreds of our suppliers are facing the very real possibility of a shutdown of the Bradley industrial base,” Gossel told Morning D.

HAPPY TUESDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we’d like to extend happy birthday wishes to the Army Reserve, which turns 105 today. Army Reserve communications representative Jamal Beck has an op-ed in POLITICO this morning noting the occassion: http://politi.co/10a6gRX. Keep the tips, pitches and feedback coming to awright@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @morningdefense, @abwrig and @POLITICOPro.

TOP STORY — CANADA THWARTS TERROR PLOT LINKED TO AL QAEDA, via the BBC: “Two foreign men living in Canada have been charged with plotting a terrorist attack on a passenger train, with support from al-Qaeda elements in Iran. The authorities say suspects Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, were arrested in Montreal and Toronto on Monday. They allegedly planned to derail a passenger train in the greater Toronto area, but it is not clear when. Iran has denied any link to the suspects being held in Canada.” http://bbc.in/11yqUya

-- Suspects to appear in court today: The two men will make an appearance in Toronto’s Old City Hall Court, CNN reports. A top Canadian official says there’s no evidence the terror plot was state-sponsored. http://bit.ly/13SlK5a

BOSTON UPDATE — SUSPECT SAYS HE AND BROTHER ACTED ALONE: Boston bombing suspect Dzohkhar Tsarnaev told investigators, in writing, that he and his brother were not in touch with overseas terror groups, according to a message posted on Twitter by NBC Nightly News. Tsarnaev also said he learned to make bombs on the Internet. More here: http://huff.to/YHZZ0V

-- WHY WAS TSARNAEV CHARGED WITH USING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION? Danger Room’s Spencer Ackerman has an explainer: “The actual bomb Tsarnaev allegedly constructed and detonated is pretty much the opposite of what people think about when they think “weapon of mass destruction,” a vague term that usually means a weapon carrying an unconventional payload, like a nuclear, chemical or biological yield. ... But ... ‘weapon of mass destruction’ is a very broad category under federal law. Grenades, mines, missiles and rockets all apply. So do homemade bombs of the sort Tsarnaev allegedly constructed. ... No one ever said the law had to coincide with military terminology.” http://bit.ly/Zit3Aw

TRAVELS WITH HAGEL: In Tel Aviv yesterday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel held a joint news conference with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in which the two leaders discussed Iran at length. “We are committed to providing Israel with whatever support is necessary for Israel to maintain military superiority over any state or coalition of states and non-state actors,” Hagel said. Transcript: http://1.usa.gov/15BfyhS

-- GEOGRAPHY LESSON, via Craig Whitlock of The Washington Post: “If Chuck Hagel didn’t know his Middle East geography before, he does now — thanks to a birds-eye tutorial from the Israeli military. In his first visit to Israel as secretary of Defense, Hagel took a one-hour, 40-minute tour of the northern half of the country Monday in an Israeli Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, flying from Tel Aviv to the Golan Heights before circling over Jerusalem’s Old City.

“Just in case he didn’t immediately absorb the main lesson of the flight — that Israel is a really small country with difficult-to-defend borders — a tailored 35-page briefing book spelled it out in very familiar terms for a former U.S. senator from the Midwest. ‘The State of Nebraska is nine times the size of the State of Israel,’ read the heading over a big map, in a reference to Israel’s pre-1967 borders.” http://wapo.st/11yGk5t

COMING ATTRACTIONS — ARMY TO BRIEF CONGRESSIONAL AIDES ON EMBATTLED INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM: Army officials plan to confer with House and Senate aides on the service’s controversial Distributed Common Ground System, a battlefield intelligence analysis and dissemination program that has been under fire recently from some House Republicans. The Army will hold an “information brief” on Capitol Hill Friday to update congressional staffers “on the current intelligence analysis process situation in Afghanistan,” according to an email obtained by Morning D. The DCGS program manager will be accompanied by soldiers “who have recently returned from Afghanistan who will share their experiences with DCGS,” the email said.

Last week, Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey blasted the system as a waste of money in a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. “DCGS-A has been in development since 1998 and has cost taxpayers billions of dollars,” the congressmen wrote. “Yet, the warfighters it was designed for are requesting commercial, off-the-shelf software in lieu of DCGS-A to accomplish their mission.” Read the letter here: http://politico.pro/XROhmW

10:30 a.m.: Air Force Maj. Gen. H. D. Polumbo Jr., director of ISAF’s Air Component Coordination Element and commander of the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force- Afghanistan, briefs reporters at the Pentagon via a live feed from Afghanistan.

6 p.m.: Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks on strategic and budgetary decisions at the Harvard University Institute of Politics, in Cambridge, Mass. The event will be streamed here: http://hvrd.me/11eLGlQ

WHAT PROS ARE READING:

-- SEQUESTER EXEMPTIONS: THE NEW EARMARKS, by POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn: “Agencies, companies and other groups are on the hunt for Capitol Hill allies with the juice to save their pet issues from the full force of the across-the-board cuts. Some have already been successful.” http://politico.pro/Y0Eihr

MAKING MOVES — ROCKWELL COLLINS CEO TO RETIRE: Rockwell Collins Chairman and CEO Clay Jones, 64, plans to retire on July 31 after nearly 34 years with the company. Rockwell Collins President Kelly Ortberg, 52, is expected to named as his successor, according to a company news release. “This decision was made as part of a carefully orchestrated succession planning process that has been implemented over the past several years,” Jones said. “Our focus on developing talent has ensured Kelly is well-prepared to assume this new responsibility.”

Ortberg, who was appointed president last year, previously was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the company’s Government Systems unit. The company credits Ortberg with leading “major program wins,” including avionics business on the KC-46A, KC-10 and Embraer KC-390.

THAT’S ALL FOR US. Have a great Tuesday.

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